Price boosts strengthens AMD Q4

Advanced Micro Devices Inc pointed to the way out of the woods yesterday as it turned in better than expected fourth quarter sales and said it expected to return to profit in the second quarter.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company turned in sales of $951.9m for the quarter ending December 30, down 19% on the year. However, AMD had said back in November that it expected sales to be flat to up in the high single digits on the $765.9m it reported in the third quarter. Despite the unexpected sales boost, the company still turned in a net loss of $15.8m, compared to a $178m profit the previous year. Proforma loss per share was $0.05, compared to the $0.18 loss per share Wall Street had been expecting.

Revenue was better than expected, the company said, because average selling prices for its processors "increased dramatically to $90" as it ramped up production of its Athlon XP family.

For the current quarter, the company expects a decline in revenues to $900m, which would result in a "small net loss". However, it said it still expects to return to profitability in the second quarter, and to report a profit for the year as a whole.

For the full year sales were $3.9bn, down 16.2%, while net losses were $60.6m, compared to the previous year's $983m profit.